Teruki Nakano

I feel that I encountered yoga in a somewhat unusual way compared to most people. I analyzed that many people who commit to yoga do so because they had a subjective experience where they improved the condition of their bodies or minds through the discipline.

In my case, I have been blessed with a healthy body and mind, so I didn’t have this sort of powerful subjective experience where I improved my body or mind over the long term through yoga.

But as my wife became more absorbed with yoga, I saw her physical condition improved before my very eyes; this simply sparked my intellectual curiosity as a physician.

However, as I was regularly engaging in physical activities like running and swimming at the time, I didn’t feel any need to do yoga myself, so I objectively observed my wife as she became healthier.

Throughout the course of treating patients as a doctor, I have encountered many people who struggle to feel that their condition has improved after taking only western medicine.

Could yoga be an effective way of compensating for the deficiencies of western medicine? If so, could it be introduced as a treatment method that can contribute to improving the health of more people?

Realization of this possibility was why I started yoga.

But routine medical treatment is confined to what can be achieved in limited one-on-one time with patients, and I often felt that there were significant barriers to using yoga as treatment.

Does a more effective method exist?
How can we influence more people?
Would group instruction be just as effective as individual guidance?

These are the things I pondered.

On that occasion, I happened to learn the concepts from social medicine such as the health gap and the social capital while piquing my interest in the negative effects of loneliness on a person’s health.

My fate was decided when I discovered evidence in social medicine supporting the idea that intervening in communities with weak connections among their members and improving interaction between those individuals can increase internal social capital and improve the health of the entire group.

I told myself:
Let’s leave the hospital.
Let’s approach more people.
Let’s proactively interact with those, especially who suffer from social isolation.
And let’s promote the health of communities through MEDCAREYOGA, a fusion of yoga and the expertise of medicine and care.

That is how I came to enter the world of yoga.